The Duel
by MikhailN
Summary: The Duel, as it is sometimes called, is a test of a sniper's skills as he pits it against another . While this story is about Walther & Daniela, it is also a piece about the most overrated vocation in the armed forces. Kudos to the man in the ghillie suit
1. Chapter 1

It was five in the morning when Walther woke from his sleep. Still groggy, he was aware of something soft under the covers. The first thing that came to his mind was that it was a pillow. The only flaw with this was that his pillow was firmly supporting his head. Just then he got a whiff of something fragrant and was wide awake. It was the smell of shampoo that a certain someone he knew used.

"DANIELA," he bellowed, jumping out of bed and throwing off the covers. There she was, curled up in a foetal position on his bed. She was wearing a strapless bra and panties that Walther was quite sure wasn't hers, for he had never got her anything of that sort. Walther was livid. Heckling him was not beyond her but this was quite something else.

"Did you like it? Petra said-" Before Daniela could finish, she was swept off the bed by Walther. Hoisting her in a fireman's carry, he opened the door and dumped her unceremoniously onto the empty corridor outside. Then, in the name of modesty he tossed an overcoat at her.

"That man is a very bad influence on all the girls. Go back and get changed into something decent. We're leaving at seven to meet Major Salles from the GIS. Don't be late." Walther made a mental note to give Alessandro a good talking-to about what to teach the little girls. And he had to remember to keep his door securely locked when he slept.

Daniela sat up and looked up at Walther. "Petra told me that you'd like it." Then a mischievous smile appeared on her face. "Was she right?"

"No," Walther replied, slamming the door in her face. He reminded himself once again to tell Alessandro what he shouldn't teach the girls.


	2. Chapter 2

"Good morning Major. My name is Walther and this is my co-worker Daniela," Walther said, offering his hand. Major Salles switched his briefcase from his right hand to his left, grasped Walther's hand and gave him a vigorous handshake. He was told to expect professionals who could really help him and the pair in front of him was impeccably dressed in smart business wear, looking more like boardroom executives than military personnel. There probably was a mistake.

"Good morning. Section 2 was supposed to send me an expert to help me out. May I know when he may be coming?"

Walther raised his eyebrows. "We are the ones sent to help you. I was with the German Border Guard and have a fair bit of experience with the military."

"Well, follow me," Major Salles said, striding off. Under his breath he muttered, "To think Section 2 sent me a mere policeman." He thought he wasn't heard, but he was wrong. It was audible to Walther and from the expression on Daniela's face; the slight wasn't lost on her. To avoid an unpleasant situation, Walther quickly pulled her over and whispered: "Don't worry, we'll show him what mere policemen can do."

They were taken to a meeting-room with a big round table in the centre. Major Salles sat himself down and Walther and Daniela took their places on opposite sides of the table. From his briefcase he produced a laptop and some folders and manila envelopes. Then he began his briefing

"I'm sure you've heard of the recent killings that have been on the news. On the laptop you'll see a forum post stating a list of demands and a threat to kill a person at a given location in Italy if the demands are not met. Now there are hundreds of sites putting up things like this and most are written by the insane or ones that won't ever carry out the threat. You would probably guess by now that this blogger is different. If you open the folder in front of you you'll find a full report of a sniper attack carried out in Santa Croce exactly as described in the post. The victim was struck in the head by a single 7.62mm NATO round and died instantly.

"That's not all. Within the hour of the first murder another post went up. This time the writer identified himself as a Lega Nord supporter, repeated his demands and threatened to kill another person near the Borsa Italiana. Naturally we couldn't get authorization to shut down the area and search for the shooter so we took another option. A surveillance net involving a few sniper teams was quietly set up while the police searched the surrounding area. The death that day was one of our best snipers.

"So here's where we stand. All we know about the shooter is that he is linked with a radical faction of Lega Nord and his _modus operandi _is to kill with a single shot to the head. Two people have been killed and a third coming in about five days time in Rome. Most of Italy is nearly paralyzed by fear and I've been given full power to do everything humanly possible to catch the shooter, dead or alive."

Walther and Daniela studied the documents in front of them then looked up. "We have a lot of questions to ask you, Major Salles," said Walther, pointing at a circle drawn on the map. "Why did you limit the search area to a three hundred yard radius around the area?"

"We underestimated the shooter. The first kill was done at less than a hundred yards so we thought that three hundred yards was enough."

Walther shook his head. "7.62mm NATO rounds are used by snipers and machine guns. Both can reach out to beyond five hundred yards accurately. Next question, is anyone tracing the IP address of the writer?"

"Yes, the rest of my team is working on that angle. However, they're very shorthanded and may not make it in time." Major Salles gestured to the folder on the sniper. "I kept my team small because his position may have been leaked."

"It's possible, but not likely. Counter-snipers are snipers that kill other snipers that are careless or unlucky. Here's my view. Our adversary is using fear as a weapon to stop a country and use its inhabitants as hostages. A bold plan, but effective nonetheless. The links with Padania are quite clear, because looking at his demands they ask for the release of captured Padania terrorists. Incidentally we've met this man over here called Luciano, but I digress. Money doesn't seem to be the biggest issue here because the amount he asks for is actually quite easy to get, though a quarter of a million Euros is more than our monthly salaries combined. Otherwise nothing much can be gleaned from what we have now. The biggest challenge at the moment is to find this man quickly. Major, was the sniper wearing a radio headset?"

"Of course he was."

"Then could you let us listen to the radio communications for that day?"

Major Salles reached into a manila envelope and produced a disc. Pulling the laptop over, he slotted the disc in and played it. Over the speakers came the normal radio chatter of the men getting into position and communicating that all was going well. Suddenly, there was the sound of bullet making contact with human flesh and then the report of the gun came through the speaker.

Walther shook his head. "I'm sure it got captured by the radio. Major, could you raise the volume and play it again?"

Both intrigued and disgusted by this man's apparent obsession, Major Salles turned the volume up and played it again. This time, however, Walther heard what he was searching for. He looked up at Major Salles and judging by the enlightened look on his face, he had heard it too and understood exactly what it meant.

There was the unmistakable whip-crack of the bullet breaking the sound barrier, followed by the important one second time lapse before the report was picked up by the radio. A simple calculation said that the shooter was about 500yards away.


	3. Chapter 3

They were standing on a rooftop in Milan. In front of them was a chalk outline of a person and at the head of this outline, there was a dried splatter of blood. They stood silently as the wind caught the hems of their coats and tossed it about. Walther really didn't like what he saw.

"Daniela, take up position in that chalk mark," Walther ordered

"Why?"

"Because you're about the same build as the dead man, so do it." Then he turned to Major Salles and said: "I fear our adversary may be tougher than we thought."

As soon as Daniela was settled within the outline, Walther lay down on his front beside her and motioned Major Salles to do the same.

"Now put yourselves in the shoes of this man. Where would you be watching? Any ideas Major?" Walther asked as he turned to look at him. Major Salles just shook his head. "And you, Daniela?"

"I would watch those buildings over there," replied Daniela with a sweep of her hand, indicating the buildings near the Borsa Italiana.

"Very good. Lots of windows and a good view of the supposed murder site. Now, look over here Major." Walther shifted his position a little and put his right index finger on Daniela's right cheek and his left finger on a point toward the back and left of her head . "According to the autopsy, here was the entry wound and here is the exit wound, over the left occipital lobe."

Major Salles understood exactly what Walther was trying to say. He got up and traced an imaginary line with his finger, then stopped. He was pointing at a road. Walther picked himself up and stepped over, shaking his head. "You're not completely wrong. Look at Daniela."

Curious, Major Salles looked at her. By then she was sitting up and brushing her long black hair out of her face. But it was futile, for the wind kept blowing it back. Then a sudden realization dawned upon him. Walther nodded. "Like I said, our adversary is tougher than we thought. The wind blows down from the Alps and this man used it to hide his location. Fortunately, we can make an educated guess as to how strong the wind was that day." He grasped the Major's wrist and shifted it a little so that it was now pointing at a grassy knoll.


	4. Chapter 4

"Are you sure he was hiding here?" They were standing along the gentle slope of the knoll where the grass grew to knee-height and Major Salles was beginning to have doubts as to whether Walther was right all along.

"Of course. This is about 500yards away, which fits the time lapse between the whip-crack and the report we heard over the radio earlier. From here you can see the building where your sniper was hiding. A poor place I may add, for he would have been clearly outlined against the skyline by lying over there. Also, they left behind some indelible signs." Walther started to indicate small details that were almost invisible until he pointed them out. A bent blade of grass, a broken twig and some depressions in the ground spoke volumes about the people who accidentally left them there.

"Daniela, start searching for anything out of the ordinary," ordered Walther. Then he turned to Major Salles. "There are four depressions where they placed their elbows, indicating that we're dealing with two men. I'd say that they planned to shoot a policeman to show that they are above the law. Your sniper was just unlucky."

At that moment, Daniela spotted a wisp of fabric caught on an exposed root. She picked it up and silently handed it to Walther. It was light brown and Walther felt a touch of fear as he examined it. This really did not bode well at all.

"What is it?"

"Major, this is jute. It is grown in some places in the East and is used to make ropes, sacks and the like. More importantly, it is used by military snipers to make ghillie suits. They take their uniform and laboriously sew jute fibres onto every square inch of it. After that they wear it and crawl through a mile of mud, spending most of the time fully submerged in it until their suit is never really clean. Ever. This can take up to a week of suffering and mud, but the result is a disguise that gives you the power to hide in foliage.

"Major, the pair here uses 7.62mm NATO bullets, shoots at ranges up to 500yards or more, even under strong wind conditions and wears ghillie suits. I admit that my initial guess was that they were some Padania crack shots but this means that the two are professionals." Walther paused for this to sink in, and then continued, "Major, I would like to be personally involved in the next operation."

Major Salles was taken aback, for it was not the norm for advisors from other departments to take part in police work. He shook his head, "I thought your role here was to give me advice."

"And I am advising you to let me do it, because right now there is no one else in Italy that can conduct a sniper duel in a built up area with civilians about," Walther said quietly. A long and uncomfortable silence hung in the air between the two men as Major Salles considered carefully what the German in front of him was saying. Finally with a sigh Major Salles relented. "Wise choice. I'll send you a list of things I'll need soon," Walther said to Major Salles as he walked off with Daniela.


	5. Chapter 5

The night sky was filled with stars and underneath it; there was a sense of dread and anticipation in the city of Rome. Just the day before it was announced nationwide that the GIS would not negotiate with the shooter's demands. Instead, he would be treated as a terrorist and one of Italy's best marksmen would be dispatched to hunt him down before he could carry out his threat of killing another randomly selected person in Rome. Naturally Major Salles came under fire from his bosses for trying to turn Rome into a shooting gallery. However, one thing was for certain. The shooter posted a fiery reply in response to the announcement, stating that he was far superior to "mere policemen" and would kill the marksman then carry on with his plan to kill a random person. Someone would die that day.

It was under these dire circumstances that at two in the morning an unmarked van stopped near a half-finished building and dropped off two very oddly-dressed characters. Major Salles had managed to get two sets of uniforms in the correct sizes for both Walther and Daniela. As Walther had requested, the print on the uniforms were pixellated and in varying shades of gray. To match their uniforms, black camo cream was applied to replicate the same speckled gray pattern on every bit of exposed pale skin that the uniform couldn't cover.

Slowly and silently the pair made their way about the half-finished building. In areas where darkness was plentiful they proceeded carefully, stopping every few steps to check their surroundings for anyone who may be watching. However, sometimes they did not have that luxury, like a corridor with windows that let in illumination from nearby street lamps, and had to exercise even more caution by getting down on their bellies, crawling as close to the floor as possible and carrying their equipment along in drag bags. Walther had chosen this building because it offered a good view of the city and was nearing completion, so there would be a lot of places for a sniper to hide. Every window and every pile of construction material could be a potential hiding place and it would be extremely difficult for the enemy shooter to visually inspect every one of them. After the building had been decided on, Major Salles had made some quiet arrangements with the company to give him the construction site for the day.

Finally at about five in the morning they finally reached their planned hiding spot. It was a half-completed attic on the top floor with the roof practically non-existent and the builders had left piles of bricks, mortar and other building materials lying all over the place. This not only afforded them an excellent view of most of Rome, the building materials gave them adequate clutter to blend into. However, they were still on the top floor and couldn't take the risk of standing up and silhouetting themselves against the night sky, lest the shooter was already waiting nearby and happened to see two suspicious figures wandering about on the roofs of half-completed buildings. So, keeping as close to the floor as possible Daniela concealed herself behind a few bags of cement lying about haphazardly and slowly slipped out her DSR1 from the drag bag just ask Walther crawled up next to her.

"Daniela, while you're setting up please listen to me. I know you think annoying me is good sport but avoid doing it altogether for now. You know full well that mistakes cannot be tolerated this time round," Walther whispered, almost pleadingly, "Our enemy this time round isn't your regular terrorist whose knowledge about shooting comes mainly from computer games. These two are well-trained in the art of camouflage and shooting and any mistake means death for one or both of us." Daniela gave a silent nod. By then she had the DSR1 out and was ready with it pulled firmly into the small of her shoulder. The DSR1 is a very accurate sniper rifle used almost exclusively by the GSG9. The bullpup design made it a very compact weapon, which Walther had found useful when getting into tight shooting positions. One of its unique features is the spare magazine holder in front of the trigger guard. Walther knew that in an urban setting, snipers could get very creative when hiding themselves and a recent fad involved the use of vehicles. Should this scenario play out, Walther certainly didn't want to be disadvantaged. The spare magazine in Daniela's DSR1 held five incendiary .308 rounds and on his order, she would change her ammunition and end the duel with a bang, literally.

Seeing that Daniela was quite ready, it was Walther's turn. He took out from his drag bag his H&K 417. Though it was meant to be a "designated marksman's" rifle, it was still fairly accurate with a 16 inch barrel built for accuracy and since Walther was to play a support role this time, that was sufficient. Since one of the his biggest worries at this time was the possibility that vehicles would be involved his translucent polymer magazine was holding armour-piercing rounds, just in case he needed to shoot someone in an armoured car. Slipping the stock into the small of his shoulder, Walther was suddenly in his comfort zone. Yes, this was his speciality, he thought to himself as he put his cheek firmly on the stock. He shifted his elbows ever so slightly so that bone, not muscle was in contact with the floor. As he peered through the scope he saw the crosshairs quivering ever so slightly, but this couldn't be helped, for there was a rhythm in the quivering. That rhythm was caused by the pulsing of blood through his veins and matched his heartbeat.

Without taking his cheek off the rifle, he whispered to Daniela. "I'll be your supporting shooter this time, so you'll have to do the wind and distance measurements yourself. Don't worry, for if you've memorized those maps I gave you and listened to everything that I've taught you you'll be fine. Remember that we're looking for two men using jute to break up the human outline so it's likely that they will be hiding in foliage. Take note that Rome is near the coast and he's using the winds coming in from the sea to mask his location. At first light I want you to start scanning the city, focusing on patches of vegetation." Daniela replied with a soft, "yes."

Walther knew that the biggest advantage they had now was the fact that their uniforms made them better suited for an urban duel. The pixellated pattern created an optical illusion of sorts that helped blend into the straight lines and the shades of gray was crucial in helping them blend into the drab urban landscape. Their enemy, on the other hand, was using jute to break up the distinctive human outline and blend into the sea of brown and green. In a jungle he would have millions of places to hide but this was the concrete jungle and his hiding places were limited. Of course Walther couldn't discount the possibility that they weren't using their ghillie suits this time. In that case, Walther would have to trust his experience to select the best hiding places and examine them more closely.


	6. Chapter 6

As the sun rose the pair started to scan every bit of the city. There were very few people about, mainly because they knew that today Rome was about to turn into the sniper's equivalent of the O.K. Corral. To Walther that was a good thing, for it kept them out of harm's way. He had decided that this was between the four of them and it was unnecessary to draw anyone else into it.

At about seven Walther directed Daniela to look at something interesting that he saw. At first glance Daniela only saw an abandoned house about 400yards away with a garden gone to seed. Then she realized what Walther had seen. In one corner of the garden the dead leaves formed a layer, almost as though someone had put it there to conceal something. Daniela used her scope to examine the leaf litter carefully and somewhere in one of those piles she saw the barely noticeable heel of a boot among the dead leaves. Then, looking around the boot she began to notice details that she never noticed before, like the difference in colour between the deep brown leaves and slightly lighter brown jute fibres or the almost unnoticeable irregularities in the layers of leaf litter. Almost by magic, the entire human outline appeared and Daniela felt that unmistakable sensation of fear.

The man lying among the dead leaves was staring in their direction.

Using her left hand to guide the barrel of her DSR1, she brought the crosshairs to the area where the head appeared to be. Noting the way the winds were blowing the nearby grass and leaves, she shifted the crosshairs about an inch to her right and applied a bit of pressure to the trigger, taking up the first stage.

"Hey, stop," Walter's voice came across as a harsh whisper. "Remember we're looking for two shooters. If you shoot now without finding the other shooter, he'll use the report to figure out where we are and kill us. Hold your fire until a good moment comes."

At that Daniela stopped increasing pressure on the trigger, but she refused to take her finger off the first pressure. Walther could understand, for he was feeling the terror too and he knew it well. At any moment the shooter might just spot something that they carelessly overlooked and both of them would be dead before they knew it. They were caught up in a twisted game of hide and seek where the first one to die loses and with the seeker staring right at them, even the slightest movement would lead to them losing the game.

Time passed agonizingly slowly for Walther and Daniela, whose lives were being gambled on their confidence in their camouflage. Suddenly, a car near the abandoned house started to backfire. Daniela held the rifle firmly into her shoulder, steadied the crosshairs and gently applied an ounce of pressure with her trigger finger.

Walther had heard the car backfiring and through his scope he saw the appearance of a pink mist and in the patch of leaf litter there was a small movement as the man's muscles went limp and he slumped over his rifle. In a low voice Walther whispered to Daniela, "I've got nothing left to teach you. That was brilliant." Underneath the black camo cream, Walther could see a light pink tinge appear on Daniela's cheeks and she reached for the bolt handle and chamber in another round. Normally Walther would have told her to concentrate on the mission but this time he was too relieved to bother. What Daniela had done was to use noises in the environment to mask the report of the rifle, in this case it was the car backfiring. The result is was something akin to attaching a silencer to her rifle, with her neutralizing the shooter and leaving his still-hidden counterpart none the wiser. That may very well have saved both their lives.

Now another problem presented itself. Usually the other shooter would be nearby, but they had examined the layer of dead leaves and couldn't find any sign that might give him away. Now with one of the pair dead, he would be in a state of panic. Walther knew that this made him particularly dangerous because the terror would cause him to instinctively yearn to live. At the same time, he would also become desperate as he sees his options disappear before his eyes. Standing up and walking away certainly wasn't feasible so he would fight his unseen adversary to the bitter end, with desperation causing him to employ new and unorthodox tactics. Definitely not a pleasant opponent to duel with. Since neither side knew where the other was, the duel lapsed once again into another hide-and-seek match with each waiting for the other to make a fatal mistake that would reveal their position.

By about ten that morning, it became apparent to Walther that the duel had to end soon. He was relatively unaffected by the strain of the wait, for he had conducted more than one counter-sniper hunt before and was quite familiar with all the stress that a sniper would face when he is hunting another sniper. He was feeling it all, the paranoia that their adversary was watching them and getting ready to shoot, the terror that any moment his life wasn't certain and not to mention the natural "fight-or-flight" response screaming at him to stand up and run away from it all. Fortunately Walther had experienced it all before and he accepted that it was a normal part of a high-risk sniping operation and shouldn't allow it to affect his shooting or fieldcraft, lest it give his adversary that fatal insight into his position.

However, this was the first time Daniela was doing this and she wasn't as calm. Occasionally Walther stole a few glances at her and noticed that not only was she perspiring heavily, the look in her eyes was of someone who was being taken over by anxiety and fear. The last thing he needed was Daniela to do something dangerous and put everyone in danger. Later the technicians back at SWA would tell him that this was an unusual case of Daniela being programmed to protect her handler from danger but at that point she couldn't do anything about an unseen sniper. That, coupled with the high stress of the mission, gave rise to a conflict within her to obey her handler and leave him in harm's way, or to disobey him and fire an incendiary round into the leaves to burn the shooter out. Of course at that moment Walther was blissfully unaware of all this. All he knew was that his voice comforting her seemed to calm her down and so, while he watched the garden and at the same time gently whispered to her to calm down.

Then he noticed it. There was a slight movement in the leaves. Actually Walther wasn't too sure if that was his imagination or not but what was certain was that he could now see the light of the late morning sun reflecting off a shiny surface in the leaf litter. Seizing the moment, he aimed at the glint, putting his crosshairs a little to the right to compensate for the wind, and increasing pressure on the trigger until his H&K 417 going off gave him a gentle surprise.


	7. Chapter 7

"Hey, come over here!"

Walther saw Major Salles waving to them and, together with Daniela, they crossed the police lines demarcating the whole garden as a crime scene. By now they had changed out of their fatigues and were now wearing formal clothes under formless trenchcoats with their weapons hidden under them, so that to the general public they looked like detectives instead of the marksmen that the GIS deployed to deal with the two men that were now lying in front of them. Earlier Daniela had been acting quite strangely. After they had changed out of the uniforms, she had suddenly clung on to him and refused to let go. Anyway she calmed down after a bit and Walther made a note to take her to the engineering department the moment they got back.

"Careful what you touch," yelled Major Salles, tossing a pair of gloves at them. "This is still a crime scene." Then turning to Walther, he glowered at him. "You didn't tell me you were using hollow-point bullets."

"My handloads? I didn't use them, Daniela did."

"This isn't going to sit well with the higher ups when the coroner's report comes out," the Major sighed as he pointed to one of the bodies barely visible under layers of dead vegetation and jute fibres. "Shot in the head with no exit wound and numerous bullet fragments in the cranium says that I'm going to answer to a lot of upset people about the use of inhumane ammunition. Of course these are the same people who think terrorists are amicable and slightly misguided people who can always be negotiated with. They were using TRG-21 rifles, probably stolen from army armouries and looking at the way they camouflage themselves, they're both professionals."

He noticed Daniela kneeling on the ground beside the second body and peering at the scope. It was barely visible under the camouflage but it was quite obvious that it was shattered and blood was seeping out of it. Stepping over, he told Walther, "If Daniela was using hollow-point bullets; this must be your work. The bullet hit the scope, passed down the length of it and hit him in the eye before exiting and burying itself in the ground behind him, or so the investigators tell me. An excellent shot, though it would have been better if you could take them alive."

"Major, with all due respect, there is no such thing as an excellent shot. There is nothing so excellent about humans resorting to shooting at each other to settle their disagreements. Back then I saw movement and the sunlight reflecting off his scope. Apparently he was staring down my barrel when I fired. That is a well-placed shot, not an excellent one. As for taking them alive, I hope you don't mind this." Saying that, Walther knelt down beside Daniela and with a gloved hand he reached for the shooter's breast pockets. When he stood up he was holding a Beretta 92F pistol wrapped in a waterproof Ziploc bag. Unzipping the bag, he took out the pistol, pulled the upper receiver back and locked it in place. A single 9mm round flew out of the chamber and the empty magazine in the pistol grip was now clearly visible to Major Salles.

"A single bullet, Major, to be used if ever they were caught alive. The sniper's greatest weapon is not his rifle, but fear. You've seen what two men can do to a whole city. However, fear is a double-edged sword and if ever they are captured, they can expect no mercy whatsoever. Even if these two men in front of us were arrested and somehow escaped the gallows, do you really think they would be treated in a civil manner by the rest of Italy, especially after their faces appear in the newspaper? In that respect, we're the loneliest people in armed forces. It's been a long day and Daniela's probably tired. We'll be taking our leave now."

As Walther turned to leave, a thought struck Major Salles. "Walter, you're from the Border Guard right?" Dropping his voice a little, he carried on, "Years ago when I was training in the International LRRP School there was a GSG9 sniper by the name of Walther too. Never saw his face, but he should be an officer by now. If ever you meet him please let him know that he was an excellent shooter and an even better soldier." Walther muttered under his breath, "Of course I will. Don't worry about it." Then he turned to leave.

As the pair walked away, Major Salles called after them, "Hey, if ever you two need a job you can always look for me." Walther largely ignored him. Retrenchment wasn't the biggest threat to his job at the Agency.


	8. Chapter 8

Much later, when they were alone in the SWA Daniela asked Walther, "Was everything you said just now true?"

"Of course, but it's supposed to be a secret, so don't tell anyone else, ok?"

Daniela just gave him a sweet little smile that Walther thought was due to her being affected by the mission stress that had been making her act strangely for the past hour. Nothing a visit to Dr. Bianchi couldn't solve. Suddenly she hugged him in a particularly odd fashion that caught him off-guard. Any other person might have hugged her back but Walther recognized it immediately. He shoved her away but it was too late, for in her hand was his H&K USP pistol that she had pulled from his shoulder holster. Fortunately she wasn't too concerned about shooting him. Instead, she released the magazine and seeing that it was empty, she pulled the slide back and locked it in place. A single bullet was ejected from the chamber.

"Were you really planning to shoot yourself?" Daniela asked quietly. Walther replied with a slight nod. At that she flung herself at Walther, crying uncontrollably and babbling nonstop about never allowing him to such things. Walther just pulled her closer and held her tightly. It was all he could do at that point to keep him from crying too.

Some months after the investigations ended, the SWA received a strange gift for Walther and Daniela. Two Zeiss scopes were placed side by side in a glass case, with one of them completely shattered. Most of the blood had been cleaned off, but if you examined closely, you could still see some traces of reddish-brown matter on both scopes. The glass case was mounted on a wooden base and attached to the wooden base was a metal plate with the words "To Walther and Daniela: Thank you" engraved in neat letters. Walther gave it to Daniela to display it in her room. It would be a fitting testament to the professionalism and skills of the _fratello_ that Walther and Daniela have become.


End file.
